clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Israel demolishes Al-Araqeeb for 122nd time

Israeli forces left Palestinians homeless as they demolished Al-Araqeeb

December 6, 2017 at 4:25 pm

Israeli occupation bulldozers razed the village of Al-Araqeeb in the Naqab area for the 122nd time today leaving its residents homeless despite the stormy and cold weather.

Police units protected bulldozers which stormed the village and demolished the tin and wood houses which the Bedouins had setup following the last demolition on 16 November.

Al-Araqeb is one of 35 “unrecognised” Bedouin villages. According to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), more than half of the approximately 160,000 Bedouins in the Negev reside in unrecognised villages.

The unrecognised Bedouin villages were established in the Negev soon after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war following the creation of the State of Israel.

Right groups say that the demolition of unrecognised Bedouin villages is a central Israeli policy aimed at removing the indigenous Palestinian population from the Negev and transferring them to government-zoned townships to make room for the expansion of Jewish Israeli communities.